Gloria Cheung, a bachelor of journalism student at the JMSC, has won the inaugural Human Rights Press Awards essay contest for an article she wrote about Edward Snowden, who exposed the widespread monitoring of the public’s communications by the U.S. National Security Agency.

“We’re extremely pleased that our first essay award is being given to such a deserving candidate,” Francis Moriarty, co-founder of the Human Rights Press Awards, said in a press release announcing Cheung’s award.

Cheung’s wining essay explored the privacy and freedom of speech issues raised by Citizenfour, the Oscar-winning documentary about Snowden and his actions. In granting the award, the judges said they had noted her strengths in news media and filmmaking.

Cheung, who specialises in print and documentary journalism, won a trip to Udine, Italy, where she and nine other “budding cultural reporters” are attending a 12-day camp hosted by the Far East Film Festival.

The Far East Film Festival is covering Cheung’s European travel costs, and an anonymous patron from the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents Club donated the cost of her plane ticket.